Tuesday, 23 February 2016

Book Review - Faith of the Nine, by Sachin Dev

It might be
China that is infamous for making cheap knock-offs of branded goods, but India
is decidedly not too far behind. From leather purses (made, no doubt, from the
skin of cows who did not qualify to be gau
mata) to shirts to automotive parts, we can find the uniquely Indian
‘branded hai, boss’ goods in any
popular market.

This
imitative tendency extends to writing as well. So Chetan Bhagat’s success with
romantic comedies has led to a profusion of romance novels by Indian authors
that flood the bookstores like the Mumbai rains – and are as unwelcome as the
floods they bring. And Amish Tripathi’s runaway success with mythological
fantasy has meant a vast number of imitators in that genre as well, giving us a
combination of Sanskrit, old Indian legends and a variety of fantasy tropes
derived from the works of Tolkein, Sanderson and GRR Martin. I had written at
length about this phenomenon in an earlier post, available here.

In this
midst of this, Faith of the Nine
comes across as a distinct attempt to break away from the crowd. For one thing,
the author does not take the easy way out by setting his novel in Vedic times.
The period that Faith takes place in
is closer in terms of society and technological state to India during the early
days of the first Delhi sultanate. The language used is also of a higher
quality than one is used to reading of late – indeed, much higher – from Mr
Dev’s contemporaries.

Plot

Faith of the Nine follows an overall theme of the monotheistic
‘Nam’ Empire where the older, polytheistic religion (the titular Faith of the
Nine, an origin myth that is reminiscent of Tolkein’s Ainulindale which in turn draws upon the Bible) has been
systematically stamped out. As conspiracies and murders erupt around the
capital city, the three main characters – General Fateh, a battle-weary
soldier, Abhaya, a young acolyte of the old faith and Ishan, an orphan boy of
eleven years being raised in the priesthood, find themselves thrust headlong
towards an apocalypse.

The past is
fleshed out gradually over the course of the book, through flashbacks and
story-telling, as each of the three main character meets or reminisces on their
own mentors.

The pace is
high throughout, with very limited letting up – something is always happening
to the characters, and people, places and concepts are always bubbling over, sometimes
more quickly than the mind can grasp.

Characters

Of the main
characters, the first glimpse we have is of General Fateh as a young soldier in
his first battle, his hero-worship of his father and later of his own
development into one of the Empire’s top military commanders. Mr Dev does a
good job of portraying Fateh as a dedicated soldier unused to deception, focussed
on his military expeditions, who is later brought to a role at court. Once
there, he finds himself quickly drawn into the machinations and dirty tricks of
the other courtiers, including the de
facto ruler of the Nam Empire, Jehangir
and the mysterious third member of the ruling triumvirate, Tamanjin Nasri. As Fateh tries to extract some semblance of truth
out of the many versions of the story of an assault on an outlying village, he
finds himself confronting apparitions and shadow-warriors he had not thought
existed, and challenging the basic tenets of his own faith.

Abhaya is a
‘Kwah-Seer’ monk, ordinarily residing outside of the Empire, in the desert, who
is drawn by a thoughtless prank into the capital of the Nam Empire and forced
to witness the hanging of two of his boon companions. During his own escape, he
meets Ishan the acolyte of the new faith. Later, Abhaya realises that his order
are not just seekers of a lost religion, and that his own role in the crisis of
his time will be more than that of a witness. Battles against long-extinct
creatures in the sand ensue and Abhaya finds himself once again searching for
the boy who will be the redemption of the Faith of the Nine.

Ishan is a
boy born in the dead of night in the midst of blood and chaos, watched over by
nine spirits, even as his mother commits suicide. Raised by his nanny, Bajah, Ishan grows up a precocious
child, learned in the faith of the great Pruksa (the God of the new,
monotheistic faith) but ever-curious about the truth and the origins of the
world. A chance encounter with Abhaya the heathen monk leads Ishan on a path
that ends in a daring escape from the virtual prison that has been his abode
since birth.

While Fateh
is a complex enough character, we do not see enough of Abhaya over the course
of the book. Hopefully, the next instalments will show us more of this
interesting character. Ishan, thus far, is a well fleshed-out but does not
break the mould of the ‘boy-hero’ of other fantasy stories, his development
over the next few instalments will be interesting to see.

Writing

As I have
mentioned before, Mr Dev’s writing is of a higher quality than most of his
contemporaries. A sincere effort is made to give distinct voices to each of the
characters as well as to differentiate between the social classes on the basis
of how they speak – which is more than you will see in most places.

There are
places where a phrase or word struck me as incongruous – ‘salt thrown in a soda
drink’ certainly does not seem appropriate for a book of this nature – but for
the most part, the tone if Faith is
more consistent than in Amish’s works, if one must compare the two. At times
the language gets almost too heavy-handed, as the author seems to revel in
showcasing his powers at the expense of readability, but this is, of course, a
personal opinion and quite possibly reflective of the reviewer’s limited
reading capability than anything else. A smoother flow would have helped in
making the book more accessible, but it is upto the author to decide how he
wants to pitch his language, I suppose.

Conclusion

There are
many things to like about Faith of the
Nine. On the balance though, the writing can get over-wrought at times.
Besides, though this is the first instalment of a trilogy, a bigger payoff –
some sort of conclusiveness at the end – would have helped. Still, fans of genre
fiction might find this an interesting and different experience.

Disclaimer

The book
has been received as a review copy. The reviewer is not acquainted with anybody
involved with writing the book.

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About Me

Percy Slacker was bitten by Schrodinger’s Cat as a child, and has since then combined a deep fear of cats with an
abiding conviction that he both exists and does not exist at the same
time. This existential doubt has led him
to grow up to be a writer while not actually being a writer.

He lives in Mumbai with his family, his book collection and a firm
conviction that modern civilization is in an interminable decline.